We’re thinking of seeing The Lone Ranger this weekend, because Spousal Unit is one of those fifties kids with fond memories of the TV series. And yeah the critics hatehatehatehate it, but it seems for the same reasons they hated John Carter, which was (a) a lot more fun than I expected, and (b) worth seeing on the wide screen. (Moviefone gives TLR 79% from viewers, 38% from critics.)
Gilbert Cruz at NYMagsays “The Lone Ranger Represents Everything That’s Wrong With Hollywood Blockbusters“:
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg recently took part in a symposium in which they predicted an imminent “implosion” in the system as a result of the industry’s current obsession with blockbuster movies. Curious about whether or not this was simply exaggeration, Vulture’s David Edelstein got in contact with producer Lynda Obst, author of a new book titled Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales From the New Abnormal in the Movie Business. During their conversation, she grimly agreed with the two moguls, predicting, “If, say, four huge tentpole [movies] were to go down at the same time in the same season, it would be catastrophic.”
The Lone Ranger — a.k.a. Pirates of the Caribbean 4.5: Sparrow Goes West — is looking like it might be a huge tentpole movie (it reportedly cost $215-250 million) that goes down this weekend. It also happens to be a perfect example of almost everything that’s wrong with the current Hollywood blockbuster system. In addition to being massively expensive, The Lone Ranger also demonstrates the industry’s franchise obsession, origin story laziness, over-reliance on bloodless violence, and its inability to prevent running time bloat. These are not small problems, and there is no sign that they will be riding off into the sunset anytime soon…
Anybody got an opinion to offer here? What movies are you looking forward to, this weekend or going forward this summer?